ReviewPsychoneuroendocrinology2018
Individual differences in developmental plasticity: A role for early androgens?
Review in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sickness and the Social Brain: Love in the Time of COVID.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- A rise in prepubertal DHEA in the spiny mouse reveals the effect of adrenarche on the reproductive axis.BMC biology · 2026Article
- The Evolving ADHD Phenotype in the Externalizing Context.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
- Early positive tactile stimulation reverses the increase of anxiety and decrease of sociality induced by early chronic mechanical pain in mandarin voles.Integrative zoology · 2025Article
- Sex-dependent impact of parental verbal abuse on brain lateralization of language.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- Associations of prenatal stress with 5-year-old children's executive function in a low socioeconomic status population.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- The Val158Met Polymorphism in 8-Year-Old Boys and Girls Moderates the Influence of Parenting Styles on Proactive Aggression: Testing the Sensitivity to the Environment.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023Article
- Prenatal distress, access to services, and birth outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a longitudinal study.Early human development · 2022Article
- Associations between leaf developmental stability, variability, canalization, and phenotypic plasticity inEcology and evolution · 2022Article
- Epigenetic regulation of 5α reductase-1 underlies adaptive plasticity of reproductive function and pubertal timing.BMC biology · 2022Article
- The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is associated with the longer length from clitoris to urethra.BMC women's health · 2021Article
- Sex differences in the impact of childhood socioeconomic status on immune function.Scientific reports · 2021Observational
- Maternally derived hormones, neurosteroids and the development of behaviour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Masculinized Second-to-Fourth Digit Ratio (2D:4D Ratio) Is Associated With Lower Cortisol Response in Infant Female Rhesus Monkeys (Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- Basic Human Body Dimensions Relate to Alcohol Dependence and Predict Hospital Readmission.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Article
- Sex-specific associations between prenatal negative life events and birth outcomes.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2019Article
- Lower Digit Ratio (2D:4D) Indicative of Excess Prenatal Androgen Is Associated With Increased Sociability and Greater Social Capital.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- Prenatal stress and enhanced developmental plasticity.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Developmental plasticity is a widespread property of living organisms, but different individuals in the same species can vary greatly in how susceptible they are to environmental influences. In humans, research has sought to link variation in plasticity to physiological traits such as stress reactivity, exposure to prenatal stress-related hormones such as cortisol, and specific genes involved in major neurobiological pathways. However, the determinants of individual differences in plasticity are still poorly understood. Here we present the novel hypothesis that, in both sexes, higher exposure to androgens during prenatal and early postnatal life should lead to increased plasticity in traits that display greater male variability (i.e., a majority of physical and behavioral traits). First, we review evidence of greater phenotypic variation and higher susceptibility to environmental factors in males; we then consider evolutionary models that explain greater male variability and plasticity as a result of sexual selection. These empirical and theoretical strands converge on the hypothesis that androgens may promote developmental plasticity, at least for traits that show greater male variability. We discuss a number of potential mechanisms that may mediate this effect (including upregulation of neural plasticity), and address the question of whether androgen-induced plasticity is likely to be adaptive or maladaptive. We conclude by offering suggestions for future studies in this area, and considering some research designs that could be used to empirically test our hypothesis.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.